


Raise 'Em Right

by SonjaJade



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Eviction, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Teenage Rebellion, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-10-01 21:37:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20412967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonjaJade/pseuds/SonjaJade
Summary: When Chris notices her foster son has picked up more than a few sneaky habits, she puts a stop to them as soon as possible.





	Raise 'Em Right

**Author's Note:**

> Moms Made Fullmetal Week day 3- Disappointment/Pride/I need answers

Madame Christmas had been doing the books at the bar after coming home from a little trade deal just south of Dublith. Roy’d been alone there with his sisters, supposedly safe and sound. But as she worked the numbers in her ledgers, she noticed they were short two bottles of scotch and no one could account for them. Well, couldn’t account for them until she noticed one of the bottles was hidden under the bar behind a stack of cleaning rags. There was a smudged transmutation circle on the bottle cap. Likely he’d hidden it when he was drunk and couldn’t remember where he put it, because it was still half full. The circle was probably done in an effort to keep it as fresh as when he’d opened it. Then she found the other bottle tucked inside a rain boot, the top covered up by a damp sock and mostly empty. 

Chris had stomped all the way out of her office and up a narrow set of stairs in four inch stiletto heels. Oh, was he gonna get it this time. Chris had already decided that if he was old enough to drink like a fish, he was old enough to go away for his alchemy training. Every step towards his door ramped up her anger, and when she got to his doorway, she jerked the knob and threw the door open so hard that it banged off the wall and nearly closed on her before she could get in his room. She wanted to bring the wrath of heaven down upon his head, especially when he raised his head and grinned at her like every other drunkard she’d seen in her forty years of barkeeping.

“Get up!” she shouted. Roy jumped at the sound of her voice and nearly fell onto the rug. “Get your trunk and start packing!”

“Wha-” he tried to say, his voice still slow and slurred from his escapades.

“When did you start drinking!?” Chris demanded, storming over to him and slapping his arm as hard as she could. “Did you think I wouldn’t know?!”

“Ma’am, I c’n ‘splain-”

Madame slapped his face this time. “You should’ve known better!” Another swat to his cheek and Roy finally covered his head with his arms, crying that he was sorry.

She was out of breath. Chris turned away from him and began to pace the room. “For all that smarts you got, you’re the dumbest ass I’ve ever met.”

“’M sorry,” Roy repeated. “I's just gonna try a sip, honest. But Frank an' Vinnie want'd t'try it, too-”

“Frank and Vinnie,” she scoffed. “Those two delinquents are going to wind up on a chain gang and you let them get to you? Over booze?” She reached into her dress and dug her cigarettes out of her bra and lit up. She tossed him one as an afterthought and watched as he caught her lighter when she threw it, too. Chris frowned as he lit it as if he’d been smoking as long as she had. “I’m so disappointed in you, right now,” she grumbled, shaking her head.

“Sorry, Madame. It won’t hap n'again, I s-swear it,” Roy said, smoke rolling from his mouth as he looked at the floor. He shook his head as if he were trying to clear his vision. When he spoke again, his words were much clearer. “You’re right, I shouldn’t let anyone make me do things I know I not supposed to do.”

Chris shoved a pile of clothes out of a chair and sat down. “Oh, you’re damn right it’s not going to happen again." She pointed at him with her cigarette. "You’re leaving.”

Roy’s head snapped up. “Leavin'?”

“Uh-huh.”

“To where?”

She took a drag on her cigarette. “To Berthold Hawkeye’s house, to learn how to do something with yourself beside smoke and drink and whore around with your sisters.” The way his face reddened let her know that she’d guessed correctly on her last accusation. “Yes, to Master Hawkeye’s house where you don’t know a soul, won’t have any money, won’t have any distractions to keep you from honing those smarts of yours into something worth having.”

To her surprise, he didn’t protest her decision. He only asked when she wanted him gone.

Madame took a deep breath. “Honestly, I _ don’t _ want you gone. You’re the only child I’ll ever have, even if you’re not truly mine. I love you and I think you’re funny, and I’m gonna miss the hell outta you, boy. But I have to do what’s best for you, and what’s best for a fifteen year old boy is not being here in my den of debauchery. You need to be under the tutelage of a good teacher, and you need to be far enough away that I can’t hold your hand and help, much as I want to.”

He puffed quietly on his cigarette, his silence acting as his acceptance of her judgement. When he was finished, he tossed the butt into the wood stove and turned to her.

“I never want you to be disappointed in me again. I’ll go an' begin my studies an' make you proud.”

She rose and hugged him. “I’m sorry for slapping you.”

“S'alright, I had it comin’,” he said with a grin. 

Chris sighed. “You can stay for a few more days. Say goodbye to your friends and schoolmates and all that. I’ve got to arrange everything with Hawkeye, anyhow. But you’re on super thin ice. No drinking- period. And only ten cigarettes a day.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And don’t sleep with the girls. I need them to make me money, not entertain you,” she warned, pointing her finger. He nodded, standing awkwardly in his boxers and unbuttoned shirt. She told him to get some sleep and they’d discuss the details of his upcoming trip when he woke up. She shut his door without the force in which she opened it, and made her way down the hall to her own room. Kicking off her shoes, she sat down at her vanity and began wiping her makeup away, hoping she was doing the right thing.


End file.
